Fastmarkets closes the CBAM pricing gap with daily view of carbon import costs

LONDON, June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Fastmarkets, a leading cross-commodity price reporting agency (PRA), today announced the launch of two new daily CBAM price assessments. These are designed to address one of the biggest challenges facing companies exposed to the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): the lack of real-time visibility into carbon costs at the point of trade.

As CBAM transitions from a reporting requirement to a financial obligation, managing carbon cost exposure in real time is becoming critical for affected companies. The new assessments are designed to give the market the visibility needed to act at the point where commercial decisions are made.

The CBAM Certificate Index and CBAM Certificate Builder provide the market with its first consistent daily view of expected CBAM certificate costs. This gives importers and exporters the ability to price, procure and manage risk before the EU confirms official certificate costs.

Under the current CBAM framework, certificate costs are only confirmed after each reporting period - quarterly in 2026 and weekly from 2027 - leaving companies without clarity on carbon costs while goods are crossing the border. For industries such as steel, aluminium and cement, this creates significant uncertainty in pricing, procurement and risk management. Fastmarkets' new assessments are designed to close this gap.

• The CBAM Certificate Index, published daily in €/tCO2e, provides a forward-looking assessment of certificate costs at the end of the reporting period. It combines auctioned European Union Allowance (EUA) values with spot and forward EUA prices, bringing primary and secondary market data into a single actionable benchmark. As each reporting period progresses and more auctions are completed, the Index increasingly reflects costs already locked in, offering a more accurate indicator than forward EUA prices alone. In the first quarter of 2026, the index closely anticipated the final CBAM certificate price, demonstrating its ability to track outcomes despite broader market volatility.
  
  
• The CBAM Certificate Builder, also published daily in €/tCO2e, provides a complementary view by tracking the volume-weighted average cost of EUA auctions completed within the current reporting period. This gives market participants a transparent picture of the costs already embedded in the final CBAM certificate price.

Together, the two series provide both a forward-looking signal and a running total of accrued costs, enabling companies to better manage exposure throughout the reporting cycle. Both assessments are designed to converge with the official CBAM certificate price at the close of each period.

"CBAM introduces a new layer of uncertainty into global trade because the final cost is only confirmed after transactions have already taken place. Bringing greater predictability to that cost is essential if companies are going to manage pricing, procurement and compliance decisions with greater confidence as carbon becomes a core part of cross-border trade," said Sam Carew, Fastmarkets Senior Strategic Markets Editor.

Companies subject to CBAM are required to purchase certificates covering the embedded emissions of imported goods. By integrating the CBAM Certificate Index and Builder with the Fastmarkets CBAM cost calculator, customers can quantify, forecast and actively manage their CBAM exposure using either EU default values or their own verified emissions data. This enables more confident decisions across pricing, procurement and compliance strategies as CBAM transitions from a reporting framework to a fully financial obligation.

For more information, visit Fastmarkets' carbon markets page.

ABOUT FASTMARKETS 

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading PRA and information provider for the agriculture, forest products, metals, carbon and energy transition markets. Its benchmark prices, analytics, forecasts, and insights are critical to customers seeking to trade, manage risk, and understand complex global markets. 

Fastmarkets was founded in 1913, with a heritage dating back to 1865 through several of its acquired brands. Fastmarkets employs more than 700 people worldwide, with offices across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The company is privately held and backed by Astorg, a leading European private equity firm.